Cliffside Transportation Services operator Bobby Coffey-Loy hauls in a team with his husband, Ricky, and in one of a couple dozen or so rigs Cliffside has dedicated to XPO Logistics freight in the network. In this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, Coffey-Loy speaks to the mission of his and cofounders’ LGBTQ+ Truck Driver Network, established within the last year and engaged in a variety of support efforts for operators all around the nation: https://lgbtqtruckdrivernetwork.com/

Ricky and Bobby Coffey-Loy haul pharmaceuticals in a 2020 Volvo VNL outfitted with a 156-inch big-bunk ARI sleeper, not the only one in the fleet at Cliffside Transportation Services. Since getting acclimated to big-bunk trucking, Bobby's found the rig to be something of a literal life-changer. He's gone from 300-plus pounds down to around 240 in a fairly short time, with a focus on cooking for himself, as also detailed in the podcast.

Here, sit on a conversation Overdrive had with Coffey-Loy at the 50th anniversary edition of the Mid-America Trucking Show last month, where the LGBTQ network made its truck-show debut to the delight of plenty at the Kentucky Exposition Center there. The West Wing booth's Mardi Gras beads were a hit – scads of folks were present on the show floor wearing them, likewise network lanyards for attendee badges you’ll hear Coffey-Loy talk about. It's all part of a mission in part to increase LGBTQ+ visibility among the trucking community, but also to make good on its "All Drivers Means All" motto.

To that end, too, Coffey-Loy details a program the network has embarked upon to honor drivers lost on the road with messages and other tokens of support delivered to their families. Since the MATS show, he said this morning, the network has been getting quite a number of people "wanting a loved one honored and recognized by the Driver Memorial Program. ... We honor all drivers with this program, LGBTQ or not." Also, more companies have stepped up to "become a part of the network we are creating and vetting ... as LGBTQ+-friendly places to work." The organization adds such companies to this page: https://lgbtqvetted.com/

Also in the podcast, we pause to remember an owner-operator lost. My own interaction with Randy Cunha through recent years wasn’t extensive, by any means, but I’ll say that when we spoke attendant to my reporting on heavy-specialized hauling in the Spring of 2020, just as Cunha was winding down his own business toward retirement, the man I spoke to then was clearly an incarnation of the very best in the business of trucking as an owner-operator.

He’d become that after a career that spanned five decades and ended on a nice high note -- with a run of very good years under his own authority, heavy and oversize permits and all. In the podcast, catch much more about that directly from a man who knew him much better than me, our own "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15291259/remembering-heavyspecialized-owneroperator-randy-cunha